Mass Effect: Redemption
by Darkhound64
Summary: Mostly OC's who I try to work into the existing plot as much as possible. Some Cameo's from Characters in ME2 is quite a possibility.
1. Chapter I

**Chapter I**

So they had found him again. Arrested again. Put in prison again. It was all becoming standard fare now to be honest, but at least some of the guards were new, some new faces, but so skittish. They always had a cell open for him here, and he dropped in every so often to say hello, but he wouldn't be staying long. First chance he got he would be out of here, he needed some information and he knew exactly where he needed to go to find it. Actually, he had been on his way out there, when he had been arrested for 'killing a few people, maybe destroying that one space station.' They had all been mercs and pirates anyway, so what real harm was he doing to the world? Was he not simply making it better for every damned soul that lived in it. The female moved again, it may have been prison, meaning you would expect him to be uncomfortable, but these cells were almost too roomy.

Looking out the small window in the front of the door, he could see the prison guard. They called them prison guards, because that's what they were here for - guarding the prisons, but they weren't really prison guards, simply hired mercenaries, most of which took pleasure in the off chance that they got to beat one of the prisoners to a bloody pulp every once in a while, that kept them happy. He was beaten almost every day, he pissed the guards off - something they did not like all that much, but he was almost becoming immune to it by now, they were going to need to up their game soon.

As if on cue, he could see through the window as the guard turned to face the door, fiddling with the lock for a moment before it opened and the door slid open smoothly, allowing the guard entrance into the prison. It was rather amazing that many of the prisoners had not escaped, or tried to, the damn doors stayed open long enough, but they would probably be gunned down long before they ever hoped to get off this prison, plus what were they going to escape to? The empty void of space? Sometimes it seemed however; that death was probably the best thing to hope for.

The guard looked at the prisoner for a second, his expression unreadable behind his mercenary helmet, but he looked human at least. One of the prisoners he had killed, they had been krogan - the beatings had gotten worse after that. Not surprising. Guards didn't appreciate when you killed someone who was going to make the Warden money and krogan didn't like it much when you removed their head plates. The guard held up his baton, before proceeding to hit the prisoner in the side of the head with it. Once, twice, three times. The prisoner turned back to him, bleeding from the nose, and spat some blood onto the floor.

"Is that all you got?"

This provoked more hits from the baton, but they wouldn't kill him and even if they tried, they would be dead long before they could, then another guard would take their place. The cycle would continue, there was absolutely no way in stopping that, but he didn't plan to stop the cycle, just stick a wrench in it long enough for him to escape back into the galaxy again. Another hit to the side of the head, he spat up more blood and he heard the guard mumble something to himself.

"Your leaving, I thought we were just getting to know each other." he said, looking up at the guard as he turned his back on the prisoner.

"You're _lucky_ I'm leaving Cross, you might end up dead otherwise."

'_Yea, that's the word I would have used too. Lucky._' he thought to himself sarcastically.

The prison guard exited the cell, making damn sure to close the door behind him and lock it, standing there in front of the door again, silently, guarding. Doing his damned job. '_If I hadn't been so stupid, I wouldn't have been captured in the first place._' he thought to himself, cursing. he should have been smarter, but instead he let his emotions get in the way of his mission; a stupid mistake, a _rookie _mistake.

_Hiding out on a planet far away from any space stations had seemed like a good idea. Not many trading planets around either, you would have thought the mercs would never have found him. But they had, and it had only taken them five years to do it. Dodging out of the way of yet another burst of assault rifle fire, he pushed him deep into one of the crevasse' of the mountain, trying to keep as much of his body out of view as possible. he had attempted to sneak around the side of the mountain, hoping to take the mercs by surprise, maybe even get a few hits on them before they even knew what was happening, but somehow they had spotted him the second he had started and had begun firing on him with their rifles. Turians, Batarians, humans, blue suns mercs weren't high on his list of favorite people in the world. Dodging another spray of assault rifle fire he let go a few shots from his pistol before diving forward to hide behind another crevasse in the mountain. _

_He had made his way down the mountain after that, a damn slow process, but he was still alive at least. Knocking two blue suns merc's heads together, he proceeded to shoot each one three times, one in the head, two in the chest, making sure they were dead or at least not going to be any more trouble before he moved on. he knew exactly who had hired them, a batarian with a grudge, someone he thought he had left in him past years ago - but now it seemed like he had been mistaking. Another two guards done, killed with the turian blade this time, no need to worry about kinetic barriers when you're getting close and personal with your enemies, just slide right past the barriers. _

_Another three mercs before he was hit in the back of the head with the butt of a rifle. Another hit once he was on the ground. Rolling over and firing a few shots he noticed the merc bound backwards so not to be hit before the merc fired a shot into his leg. Cross cursed, dropping to the ground as the rounds punched through his kinetic barriers and into his leg. Looking back up at the mercs that had surrounded him he thought about making a run for it, but more likely than not that would only end with him being shot to death, so he dropped the pistol and surrendered._


	2. Chapter II

**Chapter II**

The cell door was open, not blown open, just like it had been left unlocked. There was no guard inside or outside. That wasn't right, he wasn't getting beaten, what the hell was going on? His senses began slowly coming back to him as he became more aware and awake and suddenly he could hear the blaring siren overhead.

'_Life support has been shut down, no survivors._' Well he wasn't dead yet.

Groggily pulling himself to his feet, crossing the cell to the open door before peering outside. He was taking care to make sure not to allow too much of his head to be visible. He wasn't going to risk getting shot. They had played tricks on the prisoners before, opened the cells and then those unlucky few who took the bait and tried to escape had been gunned down in cold blood, _poor bastards, _but they had it coming. Cross shook his head, it wasn't right, it shouldn't be this easy to just _escape _after all this time, something must be waiting for him, a group of mercs, blue suns, something. Cross sighed, looking around outside one more time before finally taking the step out of his cell. There were no guards, they were all dead, or otherwise occupied.

_SHEPARD IS LOSE_

The words caught him by surprise, but at least that explained what had caused all the guards to surge to one part of the ship. All the other prisoners would probably take this moment to escape too, everyone's cell had been forced open, although he wasn't exactly sure where that fit into Shepard escaping. _Shepard_ Cross knew the name: some big alliance type hero, first spectre too, if the rumors were to be believed. But then; if the rumors were to be believed - Shepard was dead, ship destroyed, crew got to the escape pods in time so they didn't meet the same fate. Although this was a prison; a way of cutting people off from the outside world, word got around and word got around that Shepard was dead. Cross didn't care, whoever they were, they were providing the necessary distraction so that Cross could escape imprisonment and continue on with his life, that was good enough for All he knew about Shepard's dealings with Purgatory and the warden, was that they were here for Jack, damn biotic bitch, it would be good to see her gone. He had never liked her. But the warden seemed to think that capturing Shepard had been a good idea.

'_Chaos was ensured._' Cross thought to himself as he began casually strolling down the hall towards the ship docking hangers. There would be at least one other ship here, that wasn't the Normandy, and Cross would hitch a ride. Maybe kill the crew on board, maybe not. Depending on how much they tried to interfere or not, all he knew was that he needed the pilot. Everyone else was expendable.

A blue suns merc rounded the corner and ran straight into him, knocking the two off their feet. They hit the ground, but Cross was up first, holding the turian merc to the ground, and keeping his arm pressed to his side so that he couldn't fire off a shot from his weapon. Cross shook his head, he may not regret what he did to end up in the prison, but those had been batarians, this was a turian. He still had to kill the merc, otherwise it was going to be his dead body they shipped next out the airlock. Cross released the merc's arm, but before he had time to raise his weapon, the turian had already brought his fist down on the turian's helmet, smashing clean through the faceplate and hitting the turian skull beneath. Removing his hand, the turian got back to his feet, picking up the merc's shotgun as well - that could be useful.

As he continued down the hall at his casual pace, he heard an explosion rock somewhere else in the ship, what the hell was Shepard doing exactly? The damn commander was supposed to be getting Subject Zero and getting out, but it seemed like Shepard was attempting to make the ship go down in flames.

'_Good thing I'm getting the hell out of here._' Cross thought to himself as he rounded the corner at the end of the hallway. This hall split off in two directions, one led down to the out processing, the other, well he wasn't sure because he had never been down that way before - but he didn't have time to go sightseeing now. Shaking his head and turning down the hall, the turian because walking, not running - running would attract too much attention - down the hall towards where the ships docked. There had to be more than just Shepard here at the moment, a scouting ship, delivering supplies maybe? Anything that Cross could use to get out alive.

Thankfully, as Cross neared the docking pay, it turned out that Shepard's Normandy hadn't been the only ship here, although it was the more noticeable of the two ships currently in dock. _They probably have no idea what they're getting themselves into._' Cross thought to himself as he ran. Everyone seemed to be attacking everyone, prisoners - Shepard - guards, just wanting to stay alive. holding the guard's shotgun to his chest he continued running, at least now he had something to defend himself with, from the prisoners mostly, he knew the guards were probably going to have their hands full. Another blue suns guard rounded the corner, almost knocking straight into Cross who pulled the trigger on his shotgun almost instinctively and watched the merc drop to the ground, his chest area now a bloody mass. He continued running, didn't even stop to loot the merc, just trying to make his way through the ship so that he could get off as soon as possible. Rounding another corner he knocked into another guard who proceeded to turn his shotgun on the prisoner. Smiling, Cross ran at the batarian guard, knocking him to the ground before following up with a punch to the head. The batarian slumped, he must be knocked out, there was no way that punch to the head would have killed him.

As another explosion rocked the ship and Cross was momentarily thrown off his feet and into a wall of the hallway. Sighing, he shook the dizziness from his mind and continued moving, slightly faster this time, keeping close to the way so he wouldn't be thrown against it again with such force. There was silence then, something that did anything but relieve Cross of his fear that there would be guards waiting for him at the docking bay. There was bound to be one or two - that was a given, but that was nothing that Cross couldn't handle easily enough with the shotgun he had looted from one of the dead mercs, add to that his own skills and he would be getting out of these ship just fine. He pulled himself to a stop as he neared the docking bay, two guards, both blue suns, both turian. Smiling, he darted up behind the first one and snapped his neck, before turning to the second a firing off a blast from his shotgun. The second merc flew backwards from the impact, hitting the wall behind him and slumping to the ground. Knocked out or dead, it didn't matter. Running to the end of the hall as quickly as he could while keeping his hold on the shotgun, he pressed the green activation button at the end of the hall which opened the airlock with a hiss.


	3. Chapter III

**Chapter III**

There hadn't been many civilians on board. A medical officer, a pilot and a two-man engineering crew was all it took to keep this little pea-shooter running. Cross had been able to take some medi-gel too, the medical officer had been _very compliant _with his requests; which had allowed him to heal up the wounds he had sustained to his chest and leg while attempting to escape the prison ship. He had found the engineering crew next, deciding to go to the cockpit last - which was probably a stupid idea if the pilot was feeling courageous and decided to try and shoot him, but he decided it none the less. The engineering duo had barely taken any notice of him, more like he was just another crew member on the ship then someone who was actually taking it from them and using it to get away from prison, but at least that meant that they weren't causing any trouble for him, always a plus.

Heading to the cockpit next, to tell that pilot he wanted to be away from here as soon as possible, get to Omega and then finally be able to rest for a little while. Even though 'getting to Omega' and 'resting' just didn't seem like they fit in the sentence together right. He had found the pilot, not bothering to sneak up on them, but not announcing himself either. The second he walked in, the pilot turned in the chair, but before she could grab for the gun rack which held three assault rifles, Cross closed in with his knife in hand and held just shy of slicing the pilot's neck. He noticed the pilot almost jump in their seat.

"Omega. Now."

"Please, don't kill me! I have a family, I- I- I want to be able to talk to them again!"

Cross lowered the shotgun, shaking his head. Always with the 'I have a family so you can't kill me.' But Cross didn't care, he would let the pilot go as long as she agreed to get him where he needed to go, then she could do whatever she goddamn pleased.

"We there yet?"

"Another two hours." The pilot replied, fiddling away with the controls. She had probably sent out a distress beacon too, but Cross would be long gone before anyone got here to check it out.

"Go have a sleep or something, you look like you need one." The pilot was female, something he wasn't used to, most pilots he had ever seen had been male. From what he knew of the Normandy; even Commander Shepard's pilot was male.

"I don't trust you." Cross replied. His trust had been destroyed not long after he started running for his life.

"My name is Carmen Sterling." The pilot replied, as if she had completely ignored Cross' last comment.

"Cross." He replied, attempting and probably failing at being polite.

"You don't have a real name?" She inquired.

"No."

The next hour or so of the trip had been rather uneventful, neither of the two spoke anymore to each other and the pilot seemed content with what she already knew. But then he fell asleep.

He awoke to the light shaking of the pilot as she tried to get him to awaken. She was smiling kindly, and Cross didn't do anything to otherwise say he still didn't trust her - he didn't but she hadn't tried to kill him in his sleep, which meant that he could trust her at least a little bit.

"We're here." She said, her voice as happy as it had been before.

"So. I assume you want me to let you go now?"

She shrugged, and Cross was confused. He assumed that had been the whole reason she was playing along, so she could get off and go see her family without dying in between now and then.

"Whatever you're doing now, I can tell it's important, you must need someone-"

Cross cut her off before she could finish that sentence. "If you want to be returning to your family, then you shouldn't make offers like that."

She shook her head, her smile finally disappearing. "I don't have a family, I just wanted to stay alive."

"I don't like being lied to." Cross replied, holding the shotgun up and pointing the barrel towards the pilot, but he didn't have any reason to shoot her, it was more just to get his point across.

"I just-"

Cross sighed, shaking his head slightly. "I know, but I don't even know where I'm heading yet. I might be at Omega for a few days."

Carmen nodded "I can wait."

There was a silence that seemed to stretch on for ages before Cross finally threw his arms up in an exaggerated fashion, "Fine then, go have a few drinks or something, I'll find you when I need you."

The two split up after that, and even though Cross was slowly but surely coming to trust his new pilot, he kept the keys with him, he didn't need her changing her mind and taking off with the ship, leaving him stuck on Omega until he could find a shuttle and hide in the cargo hold for a while. That was never fun and it left you with a screwed up spine for at least a week. Cross sighed, he had ended up going off to see Aria first, see if she knew where he could find an oh so elusive Batarian, and Carmen had followed him to Afterlife but then split off in a different direction to go get herself some drinks, after being at gunpoint twice, Cross had given her some credits, she deserved them. Only now was he realizing that might have been a stupid idea, she could always book a cheap shuttle off world.


End file.
